The C Word

The C Word is a twist on the sometimes self-created stressors between women, in spite of or perhaps even because of, decades of feminism and centuries of nonsensical competitiveness.

The story revolves around a group of young women interviewing in a city museum for the curators position. While they wait together outside the office of the museum manager, they size each other up, and it’s clear the atmosphere is adversarial. Hanging on the wall of the manager’s outer office is a Picasso. An original, curiously kept away from prying eyes. The painting is of a woman and she is, much like all Picasso’s women, very odd and aggressively beautiful.

As the women wait, the tension grows. One woman believes she shouldn’t even have to interview for the job, since she has the longest tenure and knows everything about the museum and its collections. Another feels nervous and under prepared, another’s father built half the museum and another is full of the anger of youth. A pretty typical collection of the female form, then. The play takes a dramatic and surreal turn when, with some seismic shift in reality, the Picasso comes to life and steps through her frame into the room.

As you might imagine, this causes quite the commotion. The doors are sealed shut the the women must face themselves, each other and this conjured art witch. Nothing else is known and for some time, they try to escape, which is hardly surprising. But then the witch/goddess begins to test them, one by one. She uses them as puppets, she challenges them all, and one by one they fail and find themselves in the failing. The manager in his office is never seen, but he is heard through his door as a growling animal or demon. An authoritative, threatening man.

I suppose this is all meant to be metaphorical. Four women competing for the prize, which most of them don’t even truly want. Going through the motions. Doing what is expected of them. Completing the intended path for their specialism. Their gender, their existence. 

The C Word is a metaphor, but it is one so close to reality that it’s almost a documentary. Other than the crazy art witch, of course. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in similar situations, particularly at work. They say that men are naturally competitive, but they’ve got nothing on us girls! Why is that, I wonder? Why are we so programmed to mistrust, to sabotage, to alienate each other….something got lost somewhere in time in our DNA that held us all together. Some Gaia programming that has been forced out of us by millennia of male dominance. The diamonds of our collective essence are almost lost forever. 

Things are changing, though. I can feel it. Plays like The C Word are also proof of that. Young women getting together and creating thoughtful, meaningful work about themselves. Not historical commentary, present-day discussion on our future and our souls. The Hollywood Fringe Festival is the best place for all this brain storming and these wonderful actresses, given brilliant words and direction, have an awful lot of very interesting things to say about all of it! Bravo indeed!